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Buckaroo

As my plane was landing, I could see that Sofia is a beautiful city, and seeing it on the ground confirmed what I had seen from the air. I am staying with Buck and Nadia, pastors who God had led to leave their church and town to move three hours away to Sofia, but not to start another church. What they had always done is church planting, but here God is calling out of their comfort zone. While they are wondering what to do, Nadia has been working prostitutes and other trafficked people.

I met Nadia at a conference in Estonia in October, and we had hit it off. So when Operation Capitals of Europe set Sofia as their next capital, I contacted Nadia. She invited me to come for a few days before the start of OCE. I think this was divine timing.

Last night Buck and Nadia had some friends over and invited me to a Christian musical that had been locally written and produced. The friends are a couple: Anya is Bulgarian and Sasha (which is a male name) is Russian, and they are both dancers. The conversation was mostly in Bulgarian. My ears grasped at a few familiar sounding words, but mostly it sounded very much like Russian. Buck ordered pizza from Domino’s, and I saw pretty much everyone put ketchup or mustard on their pizza—even my fellow Texan! I tried mustard on mine, and it was really good! I would never put mustard on an Italian pizza, but it’s good on American pizza.

Seeing that my plate was empty, Buck asked me if I wanted another slice, to which I responded, “No, I’m good.” He laughed about how funny it is to say “I’m good” when refusing seconds. I told him about trying to explain the Texanism “fixin to” to non-Texans, and how I had had to train myself to use the more universally understood “I’m getting ready to.” He laughed. He could relate. Now I keep hearing myself saying “I’m good,” when I had always said it unconsciously. But as I thought about it, it’s kind of a nice affirmation to say about myself several times a day. I am good!

The musical was called “John, Son of Thunder.” Of course, it was all in Bulgarian, and set in modern times, but it wasn’t hard to follow along, since I have read the Gospels. The music and dancing were really great, and the set design was imaginative. The audience was most of the spectrum of Sofia’s Christian community, and they pretty much all know each other. I commented on how nice it was to see Christians of all denominations coming together like this—it’s only really happened in Milan with the March for Jesus.

This morning I woke up to snow falling, but it hasn’t stuck. For me, snowfall is always a miracle from Heaven. Who know what God has in store for us today? But I know this: He’s good, and whatever He has for us will be good, too. I’ll say it again: God is good!